BTW what is the opinion on Monday Morning Apocalypse album here? It always seems to take a heavy hit from fans but I personally really liked it. Seems to be the TOT for Evergrey where some like the heavy sound and some thinks it derived from the traditional style. The songs themselves are very strong imo! Specially the songs from In Remembrance till the end is strong. But in general there is a lot of emotional moments from Tom through the album that I really like.
To be fair, I haven’t listened to MMA for years, pretty much since it came out. I couldn’t stand it when it released, though, probably because it was such a drastic change in style. The progressive elements were gone, Rikard’s keyboards were nowhere to be found, and their typical symphonic backgrounds were also completely absent. Having the vocals so far forward in the mix also seemed way too overpowering to my ears. It just wasn’t Evergrey to me, what I had come to love about them the previous five albums. Torn was even worse, and I was done with them to the point that I didn’t even check out a single note of Glorious Collision.
Thankfully, with the positive reviews of Hymns, I gave the band another chance and regained interest in them. But for 2-3 albums, I had written them off, a lost cause. MMA was the start of that.